A variety of reasons exist to suspend substantial sized structures along a vertical pole. Examples would be banners, signs, information, and decorations. However, the manner to suspend these things should be practical. It should be economical, flexible, adaptable to different applications, and robust enough for a variety of purposes, including use in outdoors environments.
An example relates to sports field lighting. Such lighting uses relatively tall poles (e.g. 35 feet to over a 100 feet tall) to elevate lights to illuminate large areas such as sports fields. The poles are usually made as small in diameter as possible, for economies in materials and minimization of wind load, especially in outdoor applications. Therefore, the surface of the pole does not present enough area to apply indicia or structures that are intended to be read or comprehended from substantial distances (e.g. sometimes hundreds of feet away).
Furthermore, it is counter-intuitive to add anything to such a pole, other than what might be essential for the functionality of the lights. One cannot add anything that would compromise the structural integrity of the pole. One would stay away from unbalancing the load on the pole. Additionally, great care has to be taken to avoid addition of substantial wind load. Any of these things could result in failure of the pole, especially in outdoor conditions where wind load, as an issue, is well-known in the art.
Musco Corporation, the owner of the present application, has developed one system for mounting things along the side of existing sports poles. U.S. Pat. No. 5,423,281, to inventors Crookham et al., discloses a system of suspending triangular-shaped, thin but rigid, plastic pennants from a pole. A strap is cinched around the pole and holds a bracket through which a rod or tube is held. The pennants, approximately 3′ by 5′, are hingeably attached at one side of the rod. The hinging allows them to shed the wind. They are light weight. As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,423,281, which is incorporated by reference herein, this works well for that type of structure.
However, a need has been identified to hang larger structures or hang them in a different fashion. One example would be a rectangular banner larger than the pendents of the U.S. Pat. No. 5,423,281 patent. Such a banner could be made of thin, light weight, and flexible vinyl or plastic sheeting. Unlike the pennants of the U.S. Pat. No. 5,423,281 patent, it thus needs to be supported at least towards opposite sides or ends.
A need has also been identified for mounting structure that would allow easier attachment and removal of the thing that is suspended and which allows easier attachment or removal of the structure supporting the item on the pole. In other words, a need has been identified for a system that allows temporary mounting of a banner or other item on the pole that utilizes minimal labor, equipment, and tools.
Still further, a need has been identified for such a system that is adaptable to a variety of different things to suspend or applications or situations. For example, there is a need for a mounting structure that can be adjusted in length or size to accommodate different sized banners (or other things) or different mounting points on the pole. It is therefore a principle object, feature, aspect or advantage of the present invention to provide an apparatus, method, system, and kit that solves problems in the art or improves over the state of the art.
For example, the present invention has the following objections, features, aspects or advantages:
a) provides a way to place a substantial sized banner or other device along the side of a relatively tall vertical pole;
b) allows a substantial sized banner or other device to be easily installable yet easily removable;
c) allows a substantial sized banner or other device to be effectively removable for such things as bad weather, to deter vandalism or theft, or for seasonal or periodic changing of banners or other devices on them;
d) efficiently removable for storage;
e) in one aspect, can be removed and effectively stored;
f) does not add substantially to the weight or wind load of a pole; and
g) is economical and durable.
These and other objects, features, aspects or advantages of the present invention will become more apparent with reference to the accompanying description and drawings.